The "electrosmog" that first began developing with the rollout of the electrical grid a century ago and now envelops every inhabitant of Earth is responsible for many of the diseases that impair or kill them.
During the past 100 years, we have methodically filled in the electromagnetic spectrum far beyond what occurs in nature.
Recently, several developments have highlighted the growing hazards of EMF pollution and the crucial need to address them.
In 2007, the Bioinitiative Working Group released a 650-page report citing more than 2,000 studies (many very recent) that detail the toxic effects of EMFs from all sources. Chronic exposure to even low-level radiation (like that from cell phones), can cause a variety of cancers, impair immunity, and contribute to Alzheimer's disease and dementia, heart disease, and many other ailments.
Additionally, every single study of brain tumors that looks at 10 or more years of use shows an increased risk of brain cancer.
A recent study from Sweden is particularly frightening, suggesting that if you started using a cell phone as a teen, you have a 5 times greater risk of brain cancer than those who started as an adult.
A recent study showed that exposure to very-low-frequency voltage signals (1-100kHz), or "dirty electricity," can greatly increase your risk of melanoma, thyroid cancer, and uterine cancer. These signals are largely by-products of electronics, such as modern energy-efficient appliances, televisions, stereos and other entertainment devices.
These electronic devices use a lower voltage than other appliances, and this manipulation of current creates a complex electromagnetic field. This field not only radiates into the immediate environment but also can travel along home or office wiring throughout the neighborhood.
"For the first time in our evolutionary history, we have generated an entire secondary, virtual, densely complex environment — an electromagnetic soup — that essentially overlaps the human nervous system," says Michael Persinger, PhD, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University who has studied the effects of EMFs on cancer cells.
And it appears that, more than a century after Thomas Edison switched on his first light bulb, the health consequences of that continual overlap are just now beginning to be documented.
New scientific evidence is continually emerging that nearly all the twentieth century human plagues can be tied to some aspect of our use of electricity, including:
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children
- Brain tumors
- Malignant melanoma
- Asthma
- Cardiovascular disease
- Immune system dysfunction
- Hormone disturbance
- Brittle diabetes
- Sleep disorders, headaches, Alzheimer's disease and ADHD
And this is just a partial list.
EMFs and Your DNA
Cells in your body can react to EMFs as a harmful invader, just like they do to other environmental toxins.
Remember that you are an electrical being.
Your body is a complex communication device where cells "talk", tissues "talk," organs "talk," and organisms "talk[1]." At each of these levels, the communication includes finely tuned bio-electrical transmitters and receivers, which are tuned like tuning into a radio station. What happens when you expose a radio antenna to a significant amount of external noise? You get static from the noise – and that is what is happening to your body in today's electrosmog environment.
Two of the more well-known biologicals impacts from electrosmog are the interruption of the brain wave pattern[2] leading to behavior issues[3] and the interference to your body's entire communication system (cytoskeleton)[4] leading to abnormal neurological function, such as dementia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
At a cellular level, your cell membrane receptors (the brain of the cell) recognize electromagnetic fields at very low levels of exposure producing a stress response similar to that produced by exposure to heavy metals or toxic chemicals.[5]
This can cause the cell membrane to go from an "active" or permeable state where it allows nutrients in and toxins out, to an "inactive" state where the cell membrane is impermeable. During a normal day, your cells will change states thousands of time, but when under constant environmental stress, the membranes can be locked in the inactive state. This is often referred to as "oxidative stress" as nutrients are able to enter into the cell, while toxins (free radicals) are not allowed to leave.
There is also real evidence that this inactive state can even have geno-toxic effects, meaning electrosmog is toxic by both damaging DNA and preventing your body from repairing DNA, which can be the first step to cancer.
We are not really sure what the "trigger" is that causes health problems, but we know that the electrosmog is definitely a contributing factor. For health, your body must be able to communicate within itself, that is, to be in harmony with the natural rhythm of the earth and all life.
The chaotic and unpredictable patterns from electrosmog can create noise in your body and force your body out of harmony. These damaging biological effects have been found at levels far below the so-called industrial and governmental safety limits—1,000,000 times lower than those limits, in some cases.
Why do things such as MTT, acupuncture, TENS units, pacemakers, and many other bioelectrical treatments work? Most likely a major reason why they work is because they focus on getting your body back into its natural rhythm or resonance. Just as you breathe in oxygen from an atmosphere you can't see, your cells are suspended in a sea of vibrational energy that you can't see or feel—that is, until it makes you sick.
As the MSNBC article states:
"Remember, these positive-negative shifts are occurring many thousands of times per second, so the electrons in your body are oscillating to that tune. Your body becomes charged up because you're basically coupled to the transient's electric field."
Keep in mind that all the cells in your body, whether islets in the pancreas awaiting a signal to manufacture insulin or white blood cells speeding to the site of an injury, use electricity—or "electron change"— to communicate with each other.
By overlapping the body's signaling mechanisms, could transients [electrosmog] interfere with the secretion of insulin, drown out the call-and-response of the immune system, and cause other physical havoc?"
Yes, absolutely.
And the really frightening aspect about electrosmog is how little control you have over it.
How You Can Protect Yourself
Fortunately, you are not completely helpless. There are strategies that can help reduce your exposure and protect you from the constant onslaught of radiation.
For over 20 years, Building Biologists (www.buildingbiology.net) have been studying and educating the general public regarding the negative impact of electromagnetic fields (EMF). On their website are multiple videos and information on the why, what and how for dealing with EMFs.
First and foremost, you'll want to reduce your exposure to as many sources as you can.
For my latest list of safety tips and guidelines on how to reduce your exposure, please see my previous article.
In addition to these recommendations, Camilla Rees mentions a few more in her video, including:
- Intestinal care: Make sure you're getting plenty of healthy probiotics. The Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland discovered that symptoms of electrosensitivity can be reduced by providing gut barrier support. For more information, listen to the interview with Dr. Rau, medical director of the Paracelsus Clinic, available at this link.
- Regular detoxification programs: Not only are you dealing with increasing amounts of toxic chemicals in your environment, your body is full of microorganisms that respond to EMFs by generating increased levels of their own toxins, according to a course for physicians on this subject, taught by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD.
- Beware of mold: Mold, just like other microorganisms, can also react in high EMF environments. One study showed 600 times more neurotoxins generated from mold in a high EMF environment. According to Rees, there are also mold legal cases being reviewed, questioning whether problems in buildings infested with mold may have actually been related to nearby antenna infrastructure.
Controlling the environment in which you sleep is especially important, given you spend a third of your life there. Review how to create a sleep sanctuary in five easy steps.
More Electrical Pollution Solutions
Electrical Pollution Solution has an extensive list of steps you can take to combat electrosmog in your home and work environments. Their suggestions include the following:
- Have an electrician remove dimmer switches, halogen lights, and variable speed frequency drives (VSFD) where possible—like on your energy-efficient washing machine.
- Remove touch lamps, plasma TVs, most compact fluorescent bulbs, fluorescent lights with electronic ballasts, some full-spectrum lights, and wireless plug-in phone jacks, which are all sources of high frequency EMF.
- Remove flashers from decorative lighting.
- Remove your microwave oven. Besides dangerous EMF radiation, microwave ovens have other negatives impacts on your health.
- Only use laptops on battery; recharge them when you aren't around since the transformer on the charging cord emits a very large field.
- Have your electrician make sure the wire between the meter and your electrical box is large enough and in good condition.
- Have a plumber install a PVC pipe between the house pipes and the water/sewer system.
- Have the phone company install a Radio Frequency (RF) Filter on your phone line; some people also install shielded phone wire.
- Only buy new electronics that have appropriate harmonic noise filters already installed.
- Avoid using electric blankets and electric heating pads.
- Use rubber gloves when washing dishes or working at the sink, and stand on a non-conductive mat. Both increase the resistance of the path through your body.
- Put aluminum flashing on your desktop computer, and connect that to aluminum flashing under your chair with another strip of aluminum flashing.
- You can even buy conductive socks or copper insoles! More specifics on these can be found at http://www.electricalpollution.com.
For additional EMF information, please see EMF.mercola.com for the latest news and updates.
Be a Live Wire for Change
The last thing that you can do, and perhaps the most important, is to help spread awareness about this ever-increasing problem.
If you believe that one or more transmitting products is making you ill, please report it/them to the following agencies (be prepared with the manufacturer, model and/or serial number, and a list of your symptoms):
- FDA 1-800-FDA-1088 The same FDA program that regulates medical devices also regulates consumer products that emit radiation.
- Consumer Product Safety Commission 1-800-638-2772
- EMR Policy Institute
It's unfortunate, but the government is not likely to step up and do the right thing to protect your health without a lot of pressure from the public.
Power companies have successfully beaten back attempts to modify exposure standards. The cell phone industry, which has funded at least 87% of the research on the subject, has effectively resisted regulation.
Please get involved at any level you can, to help increase the pressure on industry and industry regulators, which is the only way to create a safer future for everyone.
[1] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 189.
[2] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 96
[3] Becker, Robert. MD. Cross Current. Penguin Group. 1990. P. 215.
[4] Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis. Churchill Livingstone, 2006. P. 131.
[5] Lipton, Bruce, PhD. "The Biology of Belief." Mountain of Love/Elite Books, Santa Rosa, CA. 2005. P. 83
Suburb in uproar over Telstra tower claims
February 09, 2010 11:00pm
BARDON residents fighting a planned Telstra mobile phone base station 170m from Rainworth State School say they have been fed lies and misinformation by Telstra.
In a November 2 letter, the telco assured residents that, based on an electromagnetic radiation report commissioned by Telstra, the proposed tower would reduce existing EMR levels at the school by 50 per cent.
But a new independent National Association of Testing Authorities EMR report, which was commissioned by Brisbane City Council, reveals that if the proposed Telstra installation went ahead radiation levels at the school would be "at least 60 times higher" than the current levels.
The fight against the tower has swept up ordinary mums and dads across Brisbane's west. Residents up to 80 years old are walking the streets handing out information leaflets.
Through regular meetings and sausage sizzles, a $15,000 legal fighting fund has been raised to help push for a national "no towers near schools policy".
Last week the battle was raised on Channel 7's Sunrise program, prompting more than 6000 hits to the "No Towers Near Schools" website. "This latest development is so incredibly insulting," says Sandra Boland, Rainworth State School P&C president and mother of four.
"It's been subterfuge right from the word go. The whole community has totally lost faith in Telstra. The only statement they have made to us that we actually do believe is that they can't guarantee the safety of our children."
Telstra maintains there is no conclusive scientific evidence that 3G and 4G technology towers pose health risks.
But the Leukaemia Foundation and neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo have urged "prudent avoidance" of EMR exposure. Bardon residents are now taking the fight to Federal Parliament, rallying communities across Australia to enforce responsible location of mobile phone towers.
Allan Asher, chief executive of the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, predicts "a forest" of similar towers across Australia.
Despite requests from Brisbane City Council and the State Government to find an alternative location for the Bardon installation, Telstra is proceeding with its Gerler St plans.
Telstra has told The Courier-Mail: "This decision was not made lightly, and follows consideration of community feedback and the availability of alternative locations."
A Telstra spokesman said the company had not received a copy of the independent report and "looks forward to being able to review it with Brisbane City Council and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency when it receives a copy. An open review is important to ensure the assessment is conducted in accordance with the ARPANSA methodology."
